Traveling Around Paradise

It's  been difficult to find time and blog, but I really should try to jott some things down, something to come back upon and reminice. 

Bali was a blast, the Gili islands were probably my favorite place so far. It's pure paradise. The snorkeling was out of this world, discovering some of the biggest sea turtles on the ocean floor and most colorful assortment of fish. I can't wait to look at our gopro pics.

The gili islands are islands off of Bali, but are actually part of Lombok. Lombok is a Muslim country, which made it even more interesting. Up to 5 times a day, you could hear the mosque prayer anywhere on the Gili island, coming from the big speaker. It's interesting to listen to, obviously not understanding a word. At times, it would be a little bit eerie when the streets were silent, or when they would go off at 5am, but it was just something that I never really heard before. Kinda neat to experience that culture. 

On another note, the abundance of drugs on the island was crazy. Every corner I turned, I was being offered magic mushrooms and Molly.  And there's no police on the island, which scared me a little. The lonely planet book directed us to a security station if anything was stolen, but other then that, no authorities.

    Hanging at Pearl Pool for the Day!!

Also, the island allowed no motorized vehicles what so ever! Kinda neat- just horse drawn buggies and bicycles. And there were cats everywhere! BUT Absolutely no dogs allowed. At times, the cats could be pesty. They would be scavenging at your feet in restaurants, fighting over left over fish with other local cats. At one point, there was a cat that went potty right next to our dinner table. All these Cats, deffinetely made me miss my dogs. 

Gili had some of the bluest water I have ever seen. And the temp was perfect. Our hostel, Woodstock Hostel was amazing. The staff were the coolest bunch of guys. Every night they would come into our bungalow and tighten up the mosquito nets and light some awesome inncense that kept the bugs away. They were constantly helping us book things, answering all of our questions and just always joking around and having a good time. Ron was the man! 

After Gili islands, things shifted a little bit. We took a ferry back to Bali, Amed and about 2 hours after being back, my stomach went A-wall. I started puking and then Matt started with similar symptoms and then gabe. It lasted about a day, mine trailing on the longest. It was miserable. I think I have the most sensitive stomach out of the bunch, which sucks because I want to try all the street food. My last couple meals were the chicken satay, a peanut sauce dish at the local street food markets. After my stomach went BaZurk, chicken satay is now on the bottom of my list. 

I have been really trying to eat by the guidelines of "how not to gett sick abroad" but unfortunately my stomach has been a little woozy the last couple days with some unfortunate travelers diarrhea. Not fun. 

We've been abroad now for about 18 days. It's been absolutely exhilarating. So much detail and experiences that I've skipped over in the blog.I will for sure be back to recap more. Until then.

Bali is beautiful

Where do I even start? Bali is spectacular, beautiful, full of culture, wonderful food, temples, and genuine Balinese people. And- What's better then being in a wonderful paradise with the love of your life, but- is sharing it with your good friends that you haven't seen in a good long year. We re all here together indulging in the bali culture together. Finally spotting lindsay and Matt, Creeping up on them in customs, in line waiting to enter the Indonesian country. Happiness already fluttered my whole insides.

We arrived in Denpasar Bali and had a driver already set up through an acquaintance I had at work. His name was Ketut, a genuinely, honest, happy Balinese man. He brought us straight to our place, flowerbudBungalos. The cutest bamboo bungalows I had ever seen with netted bedding, which makes me feel like a princess, but serves the purpose of keeping Mosquitos and bugs off your body while sleeping. After settling in, we headed to the beach where we caught up on the last year and remineced on memories. 

Bali has some of the bluest water I've laid my eyes on. We hung out first on the most southern tip of bali near uluwatu. We beach hopped, checking out all the different beaches. Each one owning their personal unique character. Cliffs and canyons at some, looking out into the sea, others burried in beautiful luscious vegitation with Palm trees hovering over you. 

One of my favorite things so far, is visiting the monkey Forrest. It's always been a dream of mine, ever since I was a little girl, and watching monkey trouble over and over again, to hold a real live monkey would make me one happy gal. I got to make this dream come true as soon as we went to the city of Ubud, the culture heart of bali. Bought some bananas and the monkeys came straight for Gabe and I. Those sly lil guys tried to steal our whole bushel of bananas from the beginning. And actually, we did see monkeys earlier on too at one of the temples we went to in Uluwatu, but one of the monkeys bit Gabe, not hard but it still sketched me out. So I passed on the first  sighting. Anyways, I love monkeys. They surround themselves by all the religious temples, they are a sacred animal here in Bali. 

Since we re on the topic of animals, I will inform you of all the geckos that are here. They inhabit all over our walls in the restaurants we eat in, the places we stay and are apart of bali. They sit and eat flies off the walls, helping to keep the bugs off you. Linney loves them. Personally, I am always thinking of then crawling on me in the middle of the night, laying babies in my mouth, but i try to keep those thoughts out of my head. 

Going for a bike ride now, we re at the gili islands, 3 small islands neighboring Bali. I will try to blog a little bit more and capture these fascinating memories for the sake of your reading, and for my own personal self, trying to take everything I possibly can IN and indulging it.